Kolkata Police sets up SIT to probe into fire incident in which 4000 EVMs were destroyed

KOlkata: The calcutta police force has constituted a Special investigating team up ( sit around) to probe the fire at a government building in Kolkata’s Alipore area that destroyed around 4,000 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), even as minister of state for fire and emergency services Kaushik Chowdhury raised questions over how the blaze spread to the floors where the machines were stored.“A four-member SIT has been set up to probe the incident in which a fire broke out in a government building in Kolkata’s Alipore area on Wednesday,” a senior police officer said.“Preliminary investigation suggests that the fire started on the third or fourth floor. We wonder how it reached the eighth and ninth floors. The fifth, sixth and seventh floors in between were not damaged,” Chowdhury told reporters on Thursday.The minister said around 4,000 EVMs stored on the eighth and ninth floors were destroyed in the fire. “Apart from a few government offices including a one linked to midday meal in schools, around 4,000 EVMs were destroyed. They were kept on the eighth and ninth floors. There were EVMs from around 10 assembly constituencies,” he said.The fire broke out on Wednesday at the administrative building of the South 24 Parganas zilla parishad in Alipore. The zilla parishad is run by the Trinamool Congress (TMC), and the district is considered a political bastion of TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee.Chowdhury visited the site on Thursday to assess the damage. Forensic officials could not enter the affected floors that day because of the intense heat generated by the blaze, officials said.“Forensic officials have collected samples. It is too early to comment. The SIT was set up on Friday and the investigation is still in a nascent stage,” the police officer said.According to fire department officials, the blaze was reported around 9.50 am at the multi-storey building that houses several state government departments. Ten fire tenders were pressed into service to bring the fire under control.The TMC also questioned how the EVMs were destroyed despite legal efforts to preserve them.“MYSTERIOUSLY DESTROYED IN FIRE! 4,000 Control Units. 4,000 Ballot Units. 4,000 VVPATs. Linked to Kasba, Jadavpur, Behala East, Behala West, Metiaburuz, Satgachia and multiple assembly constituencies under Diamond Harbour sub-division. @ECISVEEP cannot keep hiding behind planted narratives forever. Judicial intervention was previously sought to preserve EVMs and CCTV footage. Then how can such incidents happen? Was this merely an accident…or a calculated attempt to make crucial evidence vanish after tampering with Democracy itself?” the party said in a post on X on Friday.Congress claimed that the incident raises “suspicions”. “A fire broke out in a government building in West Bengal, in which 4,000 EVMs were reduced to ashes. These EVMs had been used in the recently held assembly elections. This incident raises suspicions. The government and the Election Commission should clarify how the fire started and how it reached up to the ninth-tenth floor?” the Congress wrote on X.Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) called it “no ordinary incident” and posted on X: “The destruction by fire of 4,000 EVMs in a government building located in Alipore, Kolkata, is no ordinary incident. Assembly elections had taken place in Bengal just a short while ago. So what exactly happened that such a massive blaze broke out in a government building? How did the fire start, and how did thousands of EVMs get caught in its grip? The BJP must answer.”EOM